This year, on Sat 9th Jan, Dot and I followed the North-South route (based on landmarks), Kranji MRT to Bukit Panjang LRT to Hindhede Nature Park to Bukit Timah Railway Station.

Just last month, on Sat 6th Feb, Dot and I also joined Foodscape Collective‘s Garden Hunting: Green Corridor Walk. It was focused on the Commonwealth to Buona Vista area.

So yes, with today’s walk from Tanjong Pagar to Bukit Timah Railway Station sort of means I covered the entire Green Corridor already. Yay.

Wefie with Gracie and Cheryl (we were team #LepakInSG) and Kwok Peng and Shawn of Nature Society Singapore.

From the Green Corridor website:

The Green Corridor Run is 10.5km in distance and follows the trail of the former KTM rail line, starting at the historic Tanjong Pagar Rail Station (30 Keppel Rd). From here the course runs parallel to the AYE before heading North via Buona Vista, passing near Holland Village and through the lush Clementi Woodlands, before finishing at the old Bukit Timah Rail Station. The surface of the course is a combination of trail, grass, gravel, clay and the route is very scenic due to the woodlands on either side of the course..

..The 2016 race will be the last edition of the event. The rail corridor will be closed after the race in 2016 for the construction of the Murnane pipeline, which will run along the lower half of the Green Corridor when it is completed. After the pipeline has been laid, the surface of this stretch of the green corridor will be maintained as a contiguous green space for public recreational use.

In today’s walk (or crawl really..) I was quite happy jogging-walking all the way, and at the Commonwealth area where I was reminded of the outing with Foodscape Collective, I remember feeling thankful because during that outing, Ai Lin from Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) was there to share with us the history of the houses in the area, the “removed” shrines and temples along the Green Corridor (there was a bit about Pulau Ubin too), and some insights into the working relationships with some government agencies.

You can also give feedback to the various proposals selected here. There are links to the full citations.

I love nature and I love walking in the outdoors. So that’a a given.

I also have mixed feelings about developing the Corridor. First, I am not too keen on having too many people in a nature space at any one time. And second, I am not too keen on the infrastructures that are going to be built at and around the corridor.

Today, in this running event, I saw something which made me feel like maybe, even before opening up the space later after redevelopment, and before more people decide to go to the green corridor due to its accessibility and amenities, perhaps we need push harder in educating people in general in the need to respect the environment.

What I saw today. Why do people litter when bins are provided?

This was the scene at the first water point. From this angle, it can be seen there are large bins and white bags provided for runners to throw the paper cups in. It can also be seen white cups are thrown the whole stretch on the right. The scene was also similar in the next 2 drinks station.

I was thinking, maybe it’s a logistic issue. In 2014 it was reported there were at least 5000 runners. In 2016, it was reported 11000 runners ran. Perhaps not enough bins were catered for this large size.

I was thinking, maybe it’s a manpower issue. At the second drinks station for example, there were at least 40 teenagers in bright green shirts giving out water to runners and on the other side (at that point where I was there), an older man in orange shirt was trying to pick up the cups which was overflowing the bin. Perhaps manpower designation could be looked into next time.

I was also thinking, you know what, this could just be that the people who were running have a character issue. The bin is not near us. We don’t have time to make that extra 10 steps to the bin to throw our cups. We are running, we are tired, so just shut up and don’t make a big deal out of it.

Perhaps there will always be an inherent need for us humans to have convenience in all aspects of life.

I’m just not sure if the redeveloped Green Corridor later will be prepared for our kind of society if this behaviour continues.

Maybe I am thinking too much.

How exactly can we talk about respecting nature and not littering to people?